Arizona weekly journal-miner., 1887-07-13
ARIZONA WEEKLY JOURNAL -nInER.
JULY l3, 1887
The ciIa Monster.

The ciIa Monster.
 So many congregations have been writ
 ten concerning Arlzona's pet saurian b!
 newspaper correspondents and by scien-
 tifc men on information derived from
 old time Arizonans who were willing tC
 blacken this unfortunate reptiles char
 acter as much as possible; that it IS higf
 tune the public were informed as to tho
 character and habits ot the Helodermuu
 Horridum.'
 His scientific name as given above
 might be roughly translated trough
 skinned fright" and fright he certainly
 is. which Is probably the only foundation for all the slurs which have been cast on his character. Many are prone to attach bad character to anything ugly and be- yond the pale of things dreamed of in his philosophy.
 Were the Gila monster one-half as black as he is painted, life would not be safe in Arizona, and we should have to walk on stilts to ese ape his horrid fangs As i, IS, We never see one until some In- dian bring one to sell to some tender foot white man.
 The Gila monster Is eminently modest and retiring in his habit; so much so that he invariably retires on the approach of white man. if he only has half a chance. The writer, though close ob- server of nature. camped out, prospect ing and hunting in Arizona two years be. fore he met with one, and it Is mostly; in cutting of the brush and clearing land that they are fouud.
 AS for his poisonous fangs, which many writers gloat on. he has no what ever. In speaking of fangs of course we mean the tubular poison connecting teeth peculiar to the raitlesnake and sev- eral other reSIes Of the snake genus. He has, however, . fine set of remarka- ply long and cruel teeth. slender and finely pointed as needles, but the they are not hollow, nor is there any poison glands connected with them. The writer, who has dissected mary of them, knows this to be fact Poisonous the bite may be, for the saliva of any animal injected into a wound IS always poisonous in greater or less degree. Fatal cases of poisoning have occurred from the bite of dog, cat, horse or hog and that too, when neither animal or its victim showed signs of hydrophobia. The is but one case on record in Arizona of man be- ing bitten by a Gila monster. It was SIX years ago at Tip Top. A drunken man in saloon for bravado thrust his finger into the mouth of one of these reptiles which ,,was on exhibition, and was bitten for his pains. The reptile had to be killed before the teeth could be unlocked. and then they commenced filling the foolish man with liquor. But as he was already very full they were unable to stimulate the action of the heart and consequently could not do him much good. He was all right when | he got sober. except his hand and arm were parallzed and as he never was "any count" tnor before probably. ]. and died next year. they blamed i, all to the l Helodermum.
 But poisonous or no, a man who IS particularly anxious to be bitten by one, will have fir,t to catch him and then | tease him to the biting point, and then tickle him m the mouth with his finger. The interesting animal has, however, one very reprehensive characteristic, and | that is an unfortunate breath. Do not | stoop down to get your face too near | to him when he Is angry, for he has a habi, of blowing. when he does so, the feiid odor he exhales makes one very sick fer shor, time. Perhaps this fact is the foundation of the story that he can kill man with his breath at a dist ance of SIX feet.
 In regard to his habits and diet very little IS known. In confinement he sucks eggs when the are furnished him, but never when any observers are present Nc doubt he often breaks up terestial birds nest or even a iot of snakes eggs But this does not account for his long slim teeth which are eyedently intended for tearing flesh. The writer on dis secting one found the stomach filled the bodies of innumerable large red with ants, thus proving that he adds ant eat ing to his other accomplishments Per haps he IS not swift enough of foo, to catch the proverbial snail, he asphyxiates smal! animals, such as the rats and goph- CTS with blast of his breath and then devours them al his leisure.
 The zoologiss can ind no genus liv- ing or extinct, to which he is allied, and in fact, like Arizona herself. he is unique and should certainly be given pla oe on the great seal of the territo ry-Herald
 Mark Twain as a Basebailist.
 Mark Twain and Rev. Thomas k. Beecher recently umpired game of base ball a, Elmira, New York A special says of the performance
 GA large crowd greeted Mark Twain and other prominent men who appeared a, the Maple avenue grounds this after noon 70 take par, in a game of base ball